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Our primary goal when choosing a reversible birth control method is that it effectively prevent pregnancy, is without personal unwanted side-effects and is affordable and convenient. CeMCOR believes we should add a second goal—that the effective/safe chosen contraceptive method also preserves normal menstrual cycles and ovulation.

For the woman who isn't trying to get pregnant, does it matter if an ovulatory pattern is normal? Recent studies indicate that it does. One study showed that women with only one nonovulatory cycle a year lost an average of 4% of their spinal bone. Strong evidence suggests that lack of cyclic normal progesterone is detrimental to good health.

This series of articles, originally published in the CeMCOR newsletter, illustrate the importance of ovulation throughout women's reproductive life. The articles explain what ovulation is and address some of the issues and implications of ovulatory disturbances.

Articles and magazine reports and even books about so-called “menstrual suppression” describe taking the Pill continuously or for longer than 21 days with seven days off. The advertising suggests that this is giving women a “choice” to do away with menstrual flow or menstrual problems. The Federal Drug Agency in the USA has approved one oral combined hormonal contraceptive to be taken in four extended cycles a year. These new ways of taking the Pill allow companies a new patent on old drugs and make it likely that the market for these products will expand from those who want to control pregnancy to those who want to eliminate menstrual flow.

Use this diary if you are an adolescent or premenopausal woman.
You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to read and print them. If you don't already have this program, you can download it for free.

For perimenopausal women, including women with regular cycles who have hot flushes or night sweats
You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to read and print them. If you don't already have this program, you can download it for free.

In this four-part series, Dr. Jerilynn Prior, founder of the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research, and a diverse panel of women discuss the importance of the menstrual cycle to a woman's overall health and explains how to keep track of your cycle using the Menstrual Cycle Diary.

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Estrogen’s Storm Season: Stories of Perimenopause

by Dr. Jerilynn C Prior

New second edition available

Estrogen’s Storm Season is now available in BOTH print and eBook (Mobi and ePUB) versions!

All royalties support CeMCOR research.

It is full of lively, realistic stories with which women can relate and evidence-based, empowering perimenopause information. It was a finalist in 2006 for the Independent Publisher Book Award in Health.

Join a Study:

Volunteer research participants are the heart of all CeMCOR research. Participants are invited to provide feedback on study processes, to learn their own results and at the end of a study, be the first to hear what the whole study found. Please become a CeMCOR research participant—you can contribute to improving the scientific information available for daughters, friends and the wider world of women.